If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

I saw a snake today. Just a harmless black racer. It had a few big chicken eggs in it and was sitting in the coop starting to eat another one. The lumps disappeared when I picked it up with a stick and dropped it in a bucket (splat!).

All the poisonous snakes in the US, with the exception of the coral snake, have eliptical pupils like a cat. If it isn't a coral snake and it has round pupils it isn't poisonous. You may not want to get close enough to see the pupils however.

Almost all of them except the coral have keeled scales too, as do the water snakes.